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Page 146

 

Enlightenment Eaaodine THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG

English influences, in poems, lectures, fables, and novels, laid the basis for the moral culture of Germany for many decades. There appeared also imitations of the English periodicals (after 1721) which, though largely theological in tone, continued the connection between literature and the bourgeoisie and sang of the justness of God after the manner of Pope and Thomson. How all-pervading the theological atmosphere was appears in Klopatock (d 1803) and his imitators, though it is indeed a softened theology expressed in humanistic and poetic form. The break with theology was initiated by Leasing (d. 1781), who found the step essential in his endeavor to create a new culture and a new literature upon the basis of a new attitude toward life. In revelation Leasing discerned only a manifestation of the human mind striving toward truth, which is attainable only by reason, and this theory he elaborated with the assistance of deistic theologians like Spalding (d. 1804) and Jerusalem (d. 1789). At Berlin arose the group under Nicolai (d. 1811) and Mendelsaohn (d. 1786). Their organ was the Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek, around which sprang up a group of popular philosophers who promulgated theories of natural morals, theology, and esthetics on the basis of Locks, Leibnitz, and Wolff. Wieland (d. 1813) in his philosophical romances contrasted the light French view of life with the heavy idealism of the Germans and thus gained over the Gallicized higher classes to the use of the German tongue. Of the other great figures of literature only the youthful Schiller (d. 1805) had connection with the Enlightenment. Kant (d. 1804), in his practical philosophy, in his morals, law and theology, approached the Enlightenment and lent to its ideas a more formal character. But while Goethe (d. 1832) and Schiller had little to do with the movement, the favor of the public went out to Iffland, Kotzebue and the charm of Jean Paul.

So mighty a development as the Enlightenment could not fail to produce a profound effect on the practical affairs of life. Its double io. Practi- result was (1) to strengthen the boureal Results. geoisie and inspire them to demand a share in government and administration and (2) to drive the governments themselves to concession. In England and France the first movement made itself predominant; in the rest of Europe the second was the more conspicuous. Philosophic kings and ministers now appear of the type of Frederick II. of Prussia,, and the espousal of the ideas of reform by the monarchs led in turn to the complete triumph of such ideas. The French Revolution came because the French government lacked the courage and decision to adopt the new ideas. After the Revolution the ideas persisted.. and in the subsequent political reorganization played a prominent part.

In the spiritual realm the most important effects of the Enlightenment appeared in the fields of education and public instruction. Universities were freed from the away of the old theological humanism, citizens' schools and popular schools were established or reorganized, and public instruction was freed from clerical supervision. Other influences

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like Pietism tended toward the same result, but it was from the Enlightenment that the inspiration came toward the creation of an educational system that, with the supreme confidence of the period, was expected to lead to a higher, happier, more prosperous, and more moral age. The great educational programs of the age emanated from Locke (Some Thoughts Concerning Education, 1693) and Rousseau (mile, 1762), the one outlining the education of a man of the world through experience and reflection, the other the development of man through the unrestrained unfolding of natural powers. The smile, in France, was only a success of the hour, but in Germany it gave the impetus to the great philanthropiniatic movement. Basedow (Metlzodenbuck fur Yitter and Matter der Familien and Yolker, 1770) was followed by Bahrdt, Rochow, Camps, Stuve, and others. Through Zedlitz, minister of Frederick IL, the new ideas shaped the policy of the Prussian government. But as early as the middle of the seventeenth century, the needs of the bureaucracy and the nobility had led to the erection of institutions intended to furnish a new education, not Greek and theological, but modern and practical. Halls (1694) was the type of the new institutions and it influenced greatly the development of philosophic and juristic studies. By the middle of the eighteenth century the theological education had suffered a further loss of prestige as indicated in the erection of the University of Gtittingen (1736), where humanism is found independent of theology. The Yolksschule created by Pietism fell ultimately under the away of the ideas of the Enlightenment, and even Peatalozzi recognized them in part.

Of the influence exerted by theology on the prog ress of the Enlightenment mention has already been made; it was an influence exerted, however, under compulsion and it advanced the interests of the Enlightenment without adding anything to its content. As a result of the

ii. Its Re- subjection in which the Enlightenlation to went was held by theology for a long

Theology. time and the necessity for violent action on the part of the latter to achieve its independence, it assumed that negative and destructive character by which it was so strongly marked. Even in its affirmative theories the En lightenment, in its struggles with theology, was brought to assume the existence of as rigid a truth as that of its rival. The break between the two was sharpest in France where the unyielding at titude of the Church made the Enlightenment perforce a movement of thorough negation. In England and Germany, on the contrary, there was a rapprochement between the two. In the former country there arose out of the deistic controversy an apologetic theology (Clarks, Butler, Warburton, and Palsy) which may be designated as rational supernaturalism, which here as well as in Germany carried the spirit of the Enlightenment into the very heart of the enemy's position. In Germany, especially, the course of the development was decided by a compromise between Enlightenment and theology which was effectual in disseminating the principles of the former, not only among the